Aristotle and the Rediscovery of Citizenship

This book confronts a question central to political philosophy and contemporary political theory: what is a citizen?

Susan D. Collins (Author)

9780521860468, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 22 May 2006

206 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.43 kg

'Collins' work is admirable in that it offers a new perspective for the reconsideration of the 'function argument' we find in Aristotle.' Philosophie Antique

Aristotle and the Rediscovery of Citizenship confronts a question that is central to Aristotle's political philosophy as well as to contemporary political theory: what is a citizen? Answers prove to be elusive, in part because late twentieth-century critiques of the Enlightenment called into doubt fundamental tenets that once guided us. Engaging the two major works of Aristotle's political philosophy, his Nicomachean Ethics and his Politics, Susan D. Collins poses questions that current discussions of liberal citizenship do not adequately address. Drawing a path from contemporary disputes to Aristotle, she examines in detail his complex presentations of moral virtue, civic education, and law; his view of the aims and limits of the political community; and his treatment of the connection between citizenship and the human good. Collins thereby shows how Aristotle continues to be an indispensable source of enlightenment, as he has been for political and religious traditions of the past.

Introduction: the rediscovery of citizenship
1. Liberal citizenship and Aristotle's Ethics
2. Citizen virtue and the longing for the noble
3. Justice as virtue
4. Prudence, the good citizen, and the good life
5. Citizenship and the limits of law
6. Political wit and enlightenment
Conclusion: Aristotle and the rediscovery of citizenship.

Subject Areas: History of ideas [JFCX], Social & political philosophy [HPS], Western philosophy: Ancient, to c 500 [HPCA]